A film, music and aural presentation by Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records, Portland, USA. Featuring archival film, images & stories spanning 1890 to the present day, illustrating Eric’s own special history of underground music movements and bonafide individuals. The live footage performances are culled from Mississippi Records’ enormous library of folk blues, gospel, esoteric, international & punk music, and courtesy of the Alan Lomax Archive’s “American Patchwork” video collection, shot throughout the American South by the folklorist between 1978 and 1985.

The Lomax footage is being provided by the Association for Cultural Equity as part of their continuing effort to make important cultural information available to all who seek it.

Rare film of musicians associated with the Mississippi Records label such as one man band Abner Jay, angel channeling Bishop Perry Tillis, Rev.Louis Overstreet & his four sons, legendary folk singer Michael Hurley & many more will be featured.. Each film segment will be introduced with brief stories about the musicians. There will also be a short slideshow that tells the story of the underground music industry & Mississippi Records.

The endless cycle of conflict and incident that exists between the subterranean and marginalised music scenes and the mainstream music industry will be explored by Eric without using language or images associated with simplified boring dogma, slogan chanting or political rhetoric. Mississippi Records, in a short time, has bypassed most antiquated record label conventions and has, through a few guiding principles and great taste, gained cult status, lots of sales and love and praise from all quarters.

Mississippi Records has produced over 150 releases on LP & 100 releases on cassette tape that crisscross’s borders, digging up joyous albums, singles and unheard songs and sounds that where being left under the bed, out in the shed and unloved by most record companies. They have managed to do this on a shoestring budget, without ever advertising or engaging in promotion of any kind & distributing only through DIY avenues. Among it’s catalogue you can find Fred McDowell, Mahmoud Ahmed, Irma Thomas, Dog Faced Hermans, George “Bongo Joe” Coleman, Kleenex/Liliput, The Georgia Sea Island Singers, The Clean, Alamayahu Eshete, Dead Moon, Clara Rockmore, The Ex, Washington Phillips, Philip Cohran & The Artistic Heritage Ensemble, G.I. Gurdjieff and boxes full killer comps as well as artists like Marisa Anderson, Peter Buck and Michael Hurley.